X-Formation: The Beginning!

-->

My trial title, X-Formation, is a bit of a puzzle. We know “X” from school as the unknown factor,. What we are talking about forming, we really don't know. In fact, St. Paul said, “We do not know what we shall be, but we know that, when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” While most of us read that verse as if it is about seeing Christ up close in the next life, isn't the Christian life here and now about seeing him more clearly, day by day? I used to work in electronics, and some of the common words we saw on diagrams were xfmr and xstr, for transformer and transistor. “Trans,” meaning, “across,” was printed as “x.” Again, the Bible calls for each of us to, “be transformed, by the renewing of our minds.” It is that transformation that allows us to know God's will (in that same verse), and, knowing it, to be able to pray, and receive, according to his will. So, this book could have been named, How to Know the Will of God, How to Get Your Prayers Answered, or even, You, Too, Can Predict the Future! I prefer X-Formation. Finally, the X stands for the Greek letter, “Chi,” which sounds closer to “key” in our language. We see it as shorthand for “Christ” in “X-mas,” and the Person of Christ is “key” in this, key formation of Christ in us. St. Paul, again, wrote, “Little children, for whom I labor and travail until Christ be formed in you..” And isn't “Christ in you, the hope of Glory,” and, as St. Peter wrote of, “being made partakers of the divine nature...” God's goal for each of our lives?